Prices up 5% against 50% in the West: Hardeep Singh Puri

Apr 06,2022

NEW DELHI: Fuel prices have gone up the least in India as compared to Western economies amid flaring global oil prices, petroleum minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Tuesday, the day state-run fuel retailers raised pump prices for the 13th time in 15 days since they began revising rates after a gap of nearly five months. "We have raised the price of petrol by Rs 9 (per litre) over 12 or 13 days, whereas the international price has shot up... Our percentage increase is one-tenth of what it is elsewhere," Puri said.

"I have some figures which show a comparison in the prices of gasoline (petrol) between April 2021 and March 2022. In USA, during that period, the increase in prices of gasoline in terms of percentage is 51%. In Canada the increase is 52%, in Germany and UK it is 55%, in France it is 50%, in Spain it is 58%, in Sri Lanka it is 55% and in India, it is just 5%," he said. At one level, Puri's statement is an indication that we are yet to see the last of fuel price hikes, though under-recoveries have shrunk as India's crude cost has softened to $102/ barrel from a high of $130.